Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Looked them in the eye and gave them your undivided attention as they told you a story?

Got down and dirty and explored the earth? Grew a bean sprout? Smelled the flowers.

We sometimes forget the simple things in life. Letting our kids be kids. Letting them explore on their own. Figuring out who they are, not who we or society wants them to be.

I've spent the last year of my life on the road. Living in a motorhome with my family. To the surprise of many, with NO TV. Haven't had one in 1 1/2 years. And we're perfectly happy without. I cherish every moment I've had with my children. Watching their eyes smile every morning as they peeked out the window to see what their backyard was that day. Allowing them to make their own schedules, to take time to breath, to learn about others and the world around them. Letting them be in charge of themselves. (somewhat. i do still remind them to brush their teeth. :) ) And guess what? My kids pulled out books and read on their own. Colored, crafted, built forts, laughed and learned.

School has started again. I see the stress in the neighboorhood as parents stress to find the time to go to work, make dinner, do homework, go to football pracitce and finish the laundry. All in a day's time. I wonder if they've even asked their kids what they learned today. I wonder if the kids even care.

A friend passed this on to me and it's a simple reminder to slow down. Say no. Stay in. Let kids be kids.

Doing Nothing Is Something – The Overscheduled Children Of 21St-CenturyAmerica, Deprived Of The Gift Of BoredomBy Anna Quindlen

Summer is coming soon. I can feel it in the softening of the air, but I cansee it, too, in the textbooks on my children’s desks. The number of uncutpages at the back grows smaller and smaller. The loose-leaf is ragged at theedges, the binder plastic ripped at the corners. An old remembered gleerises inside me. Summer is coming. Uniform skirts in mothballs. Pencils withtheir points left broken. Open windows. Day trips to the beach. Pickupgames. Hanging out.

How boring it was.

Of course, it was the making of me, as a human being and a writer. Downtimeis where we become ourselves, looking into the middle distance, kicking atthe curb, lying on the grass or sitting on the stoop and staring at thetedious blue of the summer sky. I don’t believe you can write poetry, orcompose music, or become an actor without downtime, and plenty of it, ahiatus that passes for boredom but is really the quiet moving of the wheelsinside that fuel creativity.

And that, to me, is one of the saddest things about the lives of Americanchildren today. Soccer leagues, acting classes, tutors–the calendar of theaverage middle-class kid is so over the top that soon Palm handhelds will besold in Toys “R” Us. Our children are as overscheduled as we are, and thatis saying something.

This has become so bad that parents have arranged to schedule times forunscheduled time. Earlier this year the privileged suburb of Ridgewood,N.J., announced a Family Night, when there would be no homework, no athleticpractices and no after-school events. This was terribly exciting until Irealized that this was not one night a week, but one single night. There iseven a free-time movement, and Web site: familylife1st.org. Among thefrequently asked questions provided online: “What would families do withfamily time if they took it back?”

Let me make a suggestion for the kids involved: how about nothing? It is notsimply that it is pathetic to consider the lives of children who don’t havea moment between piano and dance and homework to talk about their day orjust search for split ends, an enormously satisfying leisure-time activityof my youth. There is also ample psychological research suggesting that whatwe might call “doing nothing” is when human beings actually do their bestthinking, and when creativity comes to call. Perhaps we are creating anentire generation of people whose ability to think outside the box, as thecurrent parlance of business has it, is being systematically stunted byscheduling.

A study by the University of Michigan quantified the downtime deficit; inthe last 20 years American kids have lost about four unstructured hours aweek. There has even arisen a global Right to Play movement: in thedeveloping world it is often about child labor, but in the United States itis about the sheer labor of being a perpetually busy child. In Omaha, Neb.,a group of parents recently lobbied for additional recess. Hooray, andyikes.

How did this happen? Adults did it. There is a culture of adult distrustthat suggests that a kid who is not playing softball or attendingscience-enrichment programs–or both–is huffing or boosting cars: if kidsare left alone, they will not stare into the middle distance and considerthe meaning of life and how come your nose in pictures never looks the wayyou think it should, but instead will get into trouble. There is also theculture of cutthroat and unquestioning competition that leads even theparents of preschoolers to gab about prestigious colleges without a trace ofirony: this suggests that any class in which you do not enroll your firstgrader will put him at a disadvantage in, say, law school.

Finally, there is a culture of workplace presence (as opposed toproductivity). Try as we might to suggest that all these enrichmentactivities are for the good of the kid, there is ample evidence that theyare really for the convenience of parents with way too little leisure timeof their own. Stories about the resignation of presidential aide KarenHughes unfailingly reported her dedication to family time by noting that shearranged to get home at 5:30 one night a week to have dinner with her son.If one weekday dinner out of five is considered laudable, what does that sayabout what’s become commonplace?

Summer is coming. It used to be a time apart for kids, a respite from theclock and the copybook, the organized day. Every once in a while, eitherguilty or overwhelmed or tired of listening to me keen about my monumentalboredom, my mother would send me to some rinky-dink park program thatconsisted almost entirely of three-legged races and making things out ofPopsicle sticks. Now, instead, there are music camps, sports camps, fatcamps, probably thin camps. I mourn hanging out in the backyard. I mournplaying Wiffle ball in the street without a sponsor and matching shirts. Imourn drawing in the dirt with a stick.

Maybe that kind of summer is gone for good. Maybe this is the leading edgeof a new way of living that not only has no room for contemplation but iscontemptuous of it. But if downtime cannot be squeezed during the schoolyear into the life of frantic and often joyless activity with which ourchildren are saddled while their parents pursue frantic and often joylessactivity of their own, what about summer? Do most adults really want tostand in line for Space Mountain or sit in traffic to get to a shore housethat doesn’t have enough saucepans? Might it be even more enriching fortheir children to stay at home and do nothing? For those who say they willonly watch TV or play on the computer, a piece of technical advice: thecable box can be unhooked, the modem removed. Perhaps it is not too late forAmerican kids to be given the gift of enforced boredom for at least a weekor two, staring into space, bored out of their gourds, exploring the insideof their own heads. “To contemplate is to toil, to think is to do,” saidVictor Hugo. “Go outside and play,” said Prudence Quindlen. Both of themwere right.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

How it began...The Suubi (hope) project was launched in 2007 while the Hansow family was living in Jinja, Uganda for the adoption of their daughter. At the orphanage, they met Anaso Grace and Adong Santa selling paper-beaded necklaces. And after they visited the original 60+ women who met each Sunday to bead together under a jackfruit tree in the village of Walukuba, Suubi was birthed - merely a response to a talent and a need.Who is Suubi...

Suubi (the Lugandan word for HOPE) is a project run by the non-profit organization Light Gives Heat. Suubi is the name of the self-governing community-based organization of beautiful women that make the jewelry, as well as the product name here in the West.HOPE is the essence of the Suubi (hope) project and our vision is two-fold:1) The Suubi (hope) project is about creating consistent weekly incomes in otherwise unemployable areas in Uganda through the purchasing and reselling of these hand-made necklaces. Thus, allowing for women to provide food and pay school fees for their children.2) In Uganda, we have been shown a HOPE that doesn't make sense and has changed everything. Therefore, we simply want to spread HOPE - sharing the stories of these amazing women and getting people across the world to look outside of themselves and respond creatively.

What we do...

In addition to buying each week (and tripling their usual profit), the Light Gives Heat volunteers also run weekly Literacy and English classes for the women of Suubi and simply spend time with the women. The majority of the 120+ women are Acholi widows who have been displaced from Northern Uganda because of an over 20-year-long war that has directly affected their tribe and homeland.

Inspiration...

Despite the tragedies they have seen, the hardships they face, and the unpredictability of life in Africa, these beautiful women of Suubi have joy on their faces and hope in their hearts.

My story.....

I discovered this organization while touring through Colorado earlier this spring. I bought a multi colored long necklace at a rock climbing gym we were visiting and it soon became my favorite accessory. Not only for the spunk it brought to any outfit but also for what it stood for. By simply buying one of these necklaces you are helping women support themselves and their families work, eat and educate. Prices.....